01 · Essay
The Anchor in the Chaos
AI is splitting the executive support profession in two. Only one half survives, and it isn’t the half most people are training for.
Identity · Behavior · Performance
Understand what drives behavior.
Insight into the hidden architecture behind people, teams, brands, and high performance, and the frameworks that make behavior easier to understand, influence, and change.
Ideas applied across leading organizations
The Architecture
See what most people miss.
Essays on the structure beneath people, teams, and brands. Each one moves from what seems to be happening to what is actually happening, then to what you can do about it. No noise. Just useful ideas.
Read the essay
02 · Essay
The Walls You Built Because They Felt Good
The Choices We Made That Cost Us Our Seat at the Table
03 · Behavior
I'm sorry, your diagnosis is Intent Blindness. Prognosis, not good.
Why smart people misread the room.
About Damien
Curiosity with a practical edge.
I study the systems beneath behavior, then turn what I find into frameworks people can actually use.
My method stands on three legs. A design practice I started at thirteen. Air Force service in forensic interviewing and human intelligence. And a long, cross-disciplinary study of how people work, from cognitive science to philosophy. The goal isn’t more theory. It’s a clearer view of what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what to do next.
- 01Identity
- 02Behavior
- 03Performance
The book · Coming soon
The Architecture of Ascent.
How people, teams, and brands really rise.
Most people cannot see why others do what they do. I call that Intent Blindness, and it taxes every deal, team, and relationship. This book is the full argument for the way out. It shows you how to read the structure beneath behavior, and how to build on it.
Join the waitlist for early chapters and the launch date.
One email when there is news. Nothing else.
The field guide
Do the read before the meeting.
Reading Intent is the working companion to the essays. You fill it in before the conversation that matters, not after it.
- 01
Pre-meeting reads. Map what each person wants, fears, and protects before you walk in.
- 02
Live observation prompts. What to watch and listen for once the stakes rise.
- 03
Debrief pages. Turn what you saw into your next move.
The Profiling Academy
Relational intelligence, trained like a craft.
Every deal, hire, partnership, and hard conversation turns on one skill. Reading what the other person actually wants. The Academy teaches the method I built from forensic interviewing, human intelligence work, and design practice.
The Mastermind
For operators who want access.
Direct advice, a working network, and a room of peers, applied to the decisions in front of you. Small by design, and by application.
The Fellowship is for builders who want to learn the method and work with Mastermind members.
What you get
1:1 advisory
Direct access to me for strategy, hard calls, and the read on the people involved.
Private learning
Small group sessions, frameworks, and working tools.
Extended network
Operators, founders, investors, and a bench of vetted fellows you can put to work.
Immersive experiences
Retreats and in-person gatherings with the group.
Read what’s actually driving people, teams, and brands.
Current ventures
Where the method is at work.
I build companies with partners I trust. Each one applies the same idea to a different room.
Explorers’ Lab.
Partner · Corporate innovationHelping organizations navigate complexity and build what’s next.
VisitFormation Labs.
Founder · Spiritual identity formationTools and experiences for deeper meaning and a more intentional life.
VisitCatching Care.
Founding board member · Child careStrengthening the emotional health of those who care for kids.
VisitPrismonde.
Founder · Cognitive scienceApplying cognitive science to business strategy and decision-making.
VisitBecoming.
Founder · Human flourishingUpgrading the human system for sustained performance and fulfillment.
Visit
Bring me the people problem.
I partner with founders and leadership teams as a strategic and commercial lead. I work the human side of the venture. Positioning, culture, negotiation, and the read on who you are dealing with.
Evidence of Intent
with Damien Foord
The podcast
Evidence of Intent.
Case-study conversations with people who read others for a living, and built something because of it.
Each episode works one case from the surface down to the structure. Every guest enters an Exhibit A into the record.